Saturday, June 21, 2008

I rode bareback today for the first time in thirty-five years!  If you could call it riding, that is.  I sat on JDancer's back, and Pat had him on a lunge line.  The way a lunge line works, is that the horse has a halter on, and a long rope is tied to the halter.  Normally, the horse just goes around in a circle with no rider.  But, today he had a rider!  Me!  We only walked and practiced whoa-ing, so it wasn't much.  We practiced whoa-ing because he is what is called a "green-broke" horse . . . in other words, he isn't completely trained yet.

When I got on him, Pat gave me what's called a "leg up."  A leg up is when the would-be rider bends their knee and the other person gives them a boost up to the horse.  But, JDancer is tall, and I am stiff, and it didn't work the first time.  It made JDancer a little uncomfortable.  So, I practiced just jumping up and down next to him for awhile and giving him treats when he didn't move.  Then Pat wanted to try for me to get on the right side.  When I tried, she thought it was easier, so that's the side I eventually got up on.

Here's some interesting trivia that I don't know if it's true or not, but this is what I've heard.  You always mount horses from the left side.  All horses are trained this way.  That part of the story is a fact.  In the very olden days of knights, the knights wore their sword on their left side.  Therefore, when they mounted the horse on the left, the sword would not get in the way.  On the other hand, or other side I should say, the original Native Americans would mount their horses on the right.  

Next, we brought cute, little Sparky into one of the stalls to trim his feet.  Pat has an electric hoof trimmer that makes a lot of noise, but is actually easier on them than the old fashioned way.  It also smells exactly like when you are at the dentist and he's drilling your teeth.  I don't like that smell and the association that goes with it, but it didn't bother Sparky much.  I had a bagful of treats, and every time he was a good boy and let Pat work on his feet, he got a horse cookie.

After that, we worked with Cisco, my pretty Reiki horse.  We worked on him with a method called T-touch, after Tellington Touch.  It is a way to work with animals.  I have a book on the dog Tellington Touch that I read a few years ago.  T-touch is for horses.  We put a rope around his neck and along the side of his body.  Even just doing that is a stretch for Cisco because he is afraid of ropes.  Pat had the rope and was at his side.  I had the rope that attached to his halter, and also had a "wand" . . . a whip that was not used to whip but to help with the lesson.  When he was supposed to go, I held the whip out straight kind of leading him along.  And when he was supposed to stop, I would hold the whip against his chest.  Like opening a door and closing a door.  He did well, and we worked with him until we ran out of horse cookies!

I transplanted an aloe vera plant!  Pat told me how to do it, and then told me to do it!  I asked if she wanted to watch to make sure I did it right.  She said to do it and then she would check it.  She said I did fine!  All right!  Maybe I'm starting to get this gardening stuff after all.